India slips out of minds at US senate meet

The Modi Government has been working hard to increase Indo-US ties on many fronts, one of which happens to be the defense sector. But the recent senate meet on June 15th, 2016 failed to bring up an India-specific amendment over the pressing issues of their own constituency.

Just a little after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US Capitol last week, the US senate met on Wednesday to meet and passed the National Defense Authorization Act 2017, overlooking an India-specific amendment SA 4618.

While the amendment was not rejected altogether, the issue was not brought up for a vote either.

Proposed by Senator John MaCain, the amendment would work towards officially realizing New Delhi as a ‘global’ strategic and defense partner. While the proposal never came up, McCain wasn’t seeing pressing on it either.

The amendment would allow the US President to re-inforce defense exports to India and governing policies.

This would mean enjoying close ties with the US like it’s other defense partners currently do. Not that the President is not already be able to make such decisions pertaining to the matter.

The Times of India reported a comment from ‘dreamoffers2’ in the USA which says that news of Modi’s visit to the USA was only covered by Indian news channels and through social media portals. Mojor US networks did not mention the Indian Prime Minister’s visit or re-run his speech.

According to an MEA spokesperson, the formation of the NDAA 2017 policies were in its initial stages.

Moreover, the addition and recognition of India as a defense partner was independent of the charters prescribed under the NDAA 2017. This was already announced in an Indo-US joint statement on June 7.

From what we hear, the two countries will continue to enjoy bipartisan support from each other in the US Congress for better defense co-operation.